Business Processes - What Are They, Anyway ? adapted from: Alec Sharp, Patrick McDermott! Workflow Modeling Tools for Process Improvement and Application Development 2nd ed. by Alec Sharp Chapter 3

1. Business Processes!
What Are They, Anyway ?
adapted from!
Alec Sharp, Patrick McDermott!
Workflow Modeling!
Tools for Process Improvement and Application Development. !
2nd ed. by Alec Sharp!
Chapter 3

2. No Definition, but Lots of Opinions
An executive wanted assistance in improving her organization’s
product lifecycle management process
A participant in a recent workshop introduced himself by offering that
he spent his days “writing processes”
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

3. No Definition, but Lots of Opinions
An executive wanted assistance in improving her organization’s
product lifecycle management process
The executive was talking about what we call a process area !
- a collection of several related business processes.
A participant in a recent workshop introduced himself by offering that
he spent his days “writing processes”
The “process writer” was talking about what we call a procedure !
- instructions for completing a specific task.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

4. No Definition, but Lots of Opinions
An executive wanted assistance in improving her organization’s
product lifecycle management process
The executive was talking about what we call a process area !
- a collection of several related business processes.
somewhere in between
Business Process
A participant in a recent workshop introduced himself by offering that
he spent his days “writing processes”
The “process writer” was talking about what we call a procedure !
- instructions for completing a specific task.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

5. Two Questions
1. Is “Business Process” an Arbitrary Concept ?
2. Does It Matter ?
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

6. Two Questions
1. Is “Business Process” an Arbitrary Concept ?
No. The distinction isn’t arbitrary at all.
2. Does It Matter ?
Yes. It matters a great deal that “process” means different things to different people.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

7. Two Questions
1. Is “Business Process” an Arbitrary Concept ?
No. The distinction isn’t arbitrary at all.
We’ll provide repeatable, unambiguous, and defensible guidelines for distinguish among
the different kinds of work that fall under the general label of “process”.
We clearly describe how to make the distinction between what we call business processes,
the process area they belong to, and the subprocesses they contain.
We’ll demonstrate that these have significantly different characteristics, and you must be
able to unambiguously identify which is which.
2. Does It Matter ?
Yes. It matters a great deal that “process” means different things to different people.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

8. Two Questions
1. Is “Business Process” an Arbitrary Concept ?
No. The distinction isn’t arbitrary at all.
We’ll provide repeatable, unambiguous, and defensible guidelines for distinguish among
the different kinds of work that fall under the general label of “process”.
We clearly describe how to make the distinction between what we call business processes,
the process area they belong to, and the subprocesses they contain.
We’ll demonstrate that these have significantly different characteristics, and you must be
able to unambiguously identify which is which.
2. Does It Matter ?
Yes. It matters a great deal that “process” means different things to different people.
Making the distinction and eliminating the confusion right at the outset of an undertaking
is vital to avoiding a variety of problems:
- circular, frustrating, time consuming discussions on “what actually is a business process”
- trouble controlling scope and producing useful deliverables
- improvements that make things worse
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

9. Defining “Process” in General
name: action verb + noun
work:!
triggering event:!
- action or decision!
- time (temporal event)!
- condition
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?
- activities!
- steps and decisions
workflow models will show!
the flow of work, from trigger to result:!
who, does what, when
result:!
- product!
- service!
- information

10. Defining “Process” in General
name: action verb + noun
named in verb-noun form:!
Two simple and useful guidelines:!
• The process name, as its simplest, must be in the form verb-noun
(or verb-qualifier-noun or verb-noun-noun), defined in the singular.!
• The verb-noun name must indicate the result of the process.
If you flip the terms around into noun-is-verbed form, the phrase
should indicate the intended result of the process
work:!
triggering event:!
- action or decision!
- necessary when describing a process
It’s time (temporal event)!to
be able to identify the event - the triggering
- condition
event - that starts it:!
initiated by a specific event:!
• action event: a person or an organization
decides to do something, for whatever
reason.!
• temporal event: some predetermined date
or time is reached at which some activity
must begin!
• condition or rule event: a monitoring activity
detects some exception condition
- activities!
- steps and decisions
name with action verbs, NOT mushy verbs:!
• An action verb indicates a single activity that happens at a
workflow models will show!
particular point in time and helps us to visualise a result.
the flow of work, from trigger to result:!
(count, evaluate, print, attach, return, prioritise, sort,
provide…)! who, does what, when
• A mushy verb tends to indicate an activity or multiple activities
that happen over time, some overall objective and don’t help
us visualise a single, specific result.
(maintain, administer, monitor, handle, …)
A mushy verb in noun-is-verbed format means nothing!
involves work:!
It goes without saying that a process involves work.!
That work can be described as a defined sequence of steps and
decisions (predictable, transaction-handling process) or as a set of
related activities (less predictable, collaborative or creative process)
and can be completed by a person or a machine or both.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?
result:!
- product!
- service!
The result of the process, in noun-is-verbed
form, must meet three criteria:!
- information
• The result is discrete and identifiable!
delivers a specific, essential result:!
• The result is countable!
• The result is essential

11. Summary of Criteria for a Well-Formed Process
• The process comprises an identified body of work that can be characterized as
a set of related activities or defined sequence of step and decisions.!
• The process name is (essentially) in action verb-noun format,
although it might have a qualifier or another noun.!
• The name is in the singular. !
• The name, if put in “noun-is-verbed” format, will indicate
the intended result (output) of the process.!
• The result must be discrete and countable.
If a mushy verb is used, these criteria will not be met.!
• The result is what the customer of the process wants.!
• The process is initiated by a triggering event that could be action, time or a condition.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

12. Defining “Business Process” in Particular
Is any set of activities with a trigger and a result a business process ?
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

13. Defining “Business Process” in Particular
Is any set of activities with a trigger and a result a business process ?
No. !
Because we attach specific meaning to the term “business process”.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

14. Defining “Business Process” in Particular
Is any set of activities with a trigger and a result a business process ?
No. !
! !
Because we attach specific meaning to the term “business process”.
A “business process” is:
• a collection of interrelated
activities,
initiated in response to a triggering event,
which achieves a specific, discrete result
for the customer and other stakeholder of the process
• a chain of activities
that establish a 1:1 relationship
from the earliest triggering event through to the final result
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

15. … which achieves a specific, discrete result…
The only reason a business process exists is to deliver a specific result. !
That result might be goods, such as the products requested on an order, or services, such as information
in response to a query. !
The all-important guideline is that the result must be individually identifiable and countable. !
The processes Develop New Product, Resolve Service Problem, Fulfill Order, and Hire Employee all
conform to this guideline. You can identify the specific new products that are developed and count them. !
ln other words, it is possible to count how many times the process Develop New Product was completed.
Similarly, it would be possible to identify and count the service problems that were resolved, the orders
that were fulfilled, and the employees that were hired. !
However, you cannot count how many research and developments, help desks, telemarketings, or human
resources were completed because those are departments or functions, but not processes. !
A good process name clearly indicates the result or end state of the process - new product is developed,
service problem is resolved, and so on.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

16. …for the customer and other stakeholder…
A customer is the recipient or beneficiary of the result produced by the business process. !
This customer may be a person, an organization, or even a broad marketplace, but the customer can be
identified and can pass judgment on how satisfactory the result and the process are. !
The customer might be internal to the organization, such as the employee whose service problem was
resolved or the department that receives the newly hired employee.!
Taking the customer’s perspective helps identify and name processes accurately.!
At a government motor vehicle licensing agency, a process called Handle Application form would not pass
the customer perspective test, because the application form is not what the customer cares about. !
Would you be satisfied knowing that your form had been “handled” ?
- taken, copied, sorted, sent, filed, retrieved, bent, folded, spindled, stapled, and mutilated - ?
No, you expect some result like a driver’s license issued or a vehicle registered, so the appropriate
processes are Issue Driver’s License and Register Vehicle. !
Also note that while the business process must provide a result to the customer, it likely has to provide a
result to other stakeholders, notably the organization itself.
The classic example: most customers would probably be happier if you did not bill them for the result they
receive, but since you would go out of business if you did that for long, the process result includes
collecting the payment, the result expected by the organization itself.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

17. …initiated in response to a triggering event…
You must be able to trace a process back to the earliest event that triggers or initiates it. !
Think of the process as a machine that is inactive until the on switch is flipped.!
The triggering event is the processes’ on switch that makes it go. !
The event is often a specific request for the result the process produces.
Develop New Product begins in response to the event “market opportunity is confirmed,” which is a
request for a new product that will satisfy the market opportunity.
Resolve Service Problem begins in response to the event “customer reports service problem,” which is a
request for the service problem to be resolved. !
Identifying the earliest event is not always easy. !
Does Fulfil Customer Order begin in response to the organization’s receipt of an order,
or a customer initiating an order, or a customer realising they have a need? !
Sometimes, there are multiple events that can initiate a process.
Taking inventory (Determine Stock Level) can be initiated by a temporal event, because it is done twice a
year, but can also be initiated by a conditional event (e.g., when a significant discrepancy is discovered).!
In any case, the effort in determining the event(s) is worth it - once you have an event and a result,
it is far easier to trace the flow of work that transforms the former into the latter.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

18. …activities…
The business process is a collection of activities, steps, tasks, actions
or whatever you want to call them.!
Whether we are discussing the five or so subprocesses that comprise a business process, the dozens of
activities we brainstormed during process discovery, or the potentially hundreds of individual steps
between trigger and result, they all collectively comprise the process. !
During process discovery, we will typically refer to activities, during framing we will identify the
subprocesses and, later still, when we start to draw workflow models, the term will be step because
workflow models show the process steps completed by the actors. !
Even then, a step in the initial workflow model will likely divide into more and finer steps during
development of more detailed models. During this discussion, and others when the precise granularity
doesn’t matter or we don’t know if one or multiple actors are involved, we’ll use the term activities. !
The point of all of this is that a process is made up of defined work,
whatever granularity you are breaking that work into.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

19. … a collection of interrelated…
The activities in the process must interrelate - they are not just an arbitrary collection of work. !
For instance, we do not want to end up analysing Joe’s job or the human resources (HR) department.
Joe does a variety of tasks, from taking orders to handling customers’ problems; the HR department does
a variety of things, from recruiting and retiring employees to administering their benefits and reimbursing
training costs. In both cases, the only relationship among the activities is that the same organization does
them all. That may be interesting, but it is not a single process - Joe probably participates in many
processes, and the HR department certainly does. !
In a process, the steps are interrelated through sequence and dependency -
in simple terms, the completion of one step leads to (flows into) the initiation of the next step, in sequence. !
Sometimes the sequence is arbitrary, and other times there is a true dependency -
step B cannot take place until step A has completed. !
Another important point - the steps are interrelated by dealing with the same token or work item,
such as a specific employee retirement, or benefit enrolment, or whatever the process deals with.
Further, all of the steps are interrelated by being traceable back to the same initiating event. !
For example, when Joe finishes taking one employee's benefit program enrolment order, he may return to
resolving another employee's reassignment problem, but in process terms the two are unrelated - they
deal with completely different work items and are part of the response to completely different events.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

20. A Guideline for Business Processes Boundaries
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

21. A Guideline for Business Processes Boundaries
1. !Collect Suggested Processes
! in action verb + noun format
settle loan
solicit
payment
register
customer
book loan
fund loan
identify
prospect
distribute
payment
solicit
prospect
accept loan
application
assess loan
application
receive
payment
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?
qualify
prospect

22. A Guideline for Business Processes Boundaries
2. !Put Suggested Processes in Typical Sequence
identify
prospect
qualify
prospect
solicit
prospect
register
customer
accept loan
application
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?
assess loan
application
fund loan
book loan
solicit
payment
receive
payment
distribute
payment
settle loan

23. A Guideline for Business Processes Boundaries
3. !Analyse the Suggested Processes
! determining the cardinality of the relationship among the various elements
1:1
identify
prospect
1:1
qualify
prospect
1:1
solicit
prospect
1:n
register
customer
1:1
accept loan
application
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?
1:1
assess loan
application
1:1
fund loan
1:n
book loan
1:1
solicit
payment
1:1
receive
payment
1:n
distribute
payment
settle loan

24. A Guideline for Business Processes Boundaries
3. !Analyse the Suggested Processes
! determining the cardinality of the relationship among the various elements
1:1
identify
prospect
1:1
qualify
prospect
1:1
solicit
prospect
1:n
register
customer
1:1
accept loan
application
1:1
assess loan
application
1:1
fund loan
1:n
book loan
1:1
solicit
payment
• if processes are connected on a 1:1 basis,
they are part of a single, end to end, business process
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?
1:1
receive
payment
1:n
distribute
payment
settle loan

25. A Guideline for Business Processes Boundaries
3. !Analyse the Suggested Processes
! determining the cardinality of the relationship among the various elements
1:1
identify
prospect
1:1
qualify
prospect
1:1
solicit
prospect
1:n
register
customer
1:1
accept loan
application
1:1
assess loan
application
1:1
fund loan
1:n
book loan
1:1
solicit
payment
1:1
receive
payment
1:n
distribute
payment
• if processes are connected on a 1:1 basis,
they are part of a single, end to end, business process
• if there is a 1:n, a n:1, or a n:n linkage,
that indicates the boundary between two separate business processes
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?
settle loan

26. A Guideline for Business Processes Boundaries
3. !Analyse the Suggested Processes
! determining the cardinality of the relationship among the various elements
1:1
identify
prospect
1:1
qualify
prospect
1:1
solicit
prospect
1:n
register
customer
1:1
accept loan
application
1:1
assess loan
application
1:1
fund loan
1:n
book loan
1:1
solicit
payment
1:1
receive
payment
1:n
distribute
payment
• if processes are connected on a 1:1 basis,
they are part of a single, end to end, business process
• if there is a 1:n, a n:1, or a n:n linkage,
that indicates the boundary between two separate business processes
The reason the 1:1 ratio works is because it is the same token moving along.
Whenever you hit a 1:n or an n:n connection, you will find that a different token is the focus of the process.
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?
settle loan

27. A Guideline for Business Processes Boundaries
4. !Process Area, Business Process, and Subprocesses
Commercial Loan Management
Acquire Customer
identify
prospect
qualify
prospect
solicit
prospect
register
customer
Settle Loan
settle loan
Issue Loan
accept loan
application
assess loan
application
fund loan
book loan
Collect Payment
solicit
payment
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?
receive
payment
distribute
payment

28. A Guideline for Business Processes Boundaries - Summary
• Activities linked on 1:1 basis are probably part of the same process!
• Each process is generally triggered by an event (action or time)
that is outside your control!
• At the end is one or more results that make one or more stakeholders happy!
• The same “token” or “work item”move through the whole process,
with the process typically transforming it
Business Processes - What Are They Anyway ?

29. Business Processes!
What Are They, Anyway ?
courtesy of!
ing. Luca Calegari